


Good Hunt

by Mad_Scientist_JC



Category: Original Work
Genre: Eldritch, Gen, Horror, Original Character(s), Original work - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28946808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Scientist_JC/pseuds/Mad_Scientist_JC
Summary: Artemis saves some lost hikers from the mists and monsters of his mountain home. He didn't expect to see a familiar face or new threat though.





	Good Hunt

Artemis tightened his grip on the butt of his rifle. The cold bled through his gloves, the night and the mis stealing all heat from his weapon. The trees and stones of the mountain were indistinguishable blobs at 10 paces around him He let his eyes relax and kept them peeled for movement. His ears rang as he fought to hear any sound in the oppressive blanket of silence. He knelt to the ground and checked the forest floor. A trampled sapling struggled to stand again. Artemis dipped low looked for more tracks, the ease and the abundance of them became a clear path into the mists. He hurried along with them, stopped, looked, listened, and then followed once more. After some time of his stop and go, a sign. Noise, nothing that sneaked in the edges of the mist though, talking. Artemis still kept his caution, but zoned in on the sounds. The dampened noise became louder and clearer as he approached.  
“This is your fucking fault! I didn’t want to even come one this stupid trip!” A man shouted.  
“Don’t you talk to me like that!” A woman shrieked.  
Artemis flinched, he had to quiet them before they attracted anything. He crept around closer to them as they continued to argue, huddled in the hollow of one of the old trees.  
“Hey!” He said in a harsh, but subdued whisper.  
“Fuck!” The man shouted and pulled the woman in front of him. She screamed and wriggled in the grip. Artemis clamped a hand over her mouth.  
“Both of you need to shut it. I’m Artemis, Marjorie sent me out to find you two when the mists rolled in.” He kneeled down in front of the pair, and slowly pulled his hand from the woman’s mouth. Artemis looked the pair over, the usual pair of tourists for his mountain town. The woman decked out in some cute hiking outfit and pack, so brand new he knew the woman had never been on a nature trail much less a proper hike. The man, jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and what Artemis was sure was a school backpack.  
“Who the fuck is Marjorie?” The woman asked.  
“The old bitch at that shitty bed and breakfast you got the room at.” The man answered.  
“Mind your tongue! Woman’s a saint. Any other of the businesses in town would have left a pair as dumb as you to the mists.” Artemis hissed.  
“Who you calling dumb, you fucking hick? Redneck Elmer Fudd looking ass.” The man bit back.  
“Well alright then, you two city slickers have fun making it back down the mountain. I’ll take my Elmer Fudd looking ass back on my own.” Artemis stood, but the woman desperately grabbed his arm.  
“No! No! Please! Help me, I’ll do anything.” She pulled his arm into her chest, smoothed out the mess of her hair, “Anything.”  
“Damn, why not just suck him off in front of me?” The man sneered and shot Artemis a dirty look.  
“You’re not my type, miss.” Artemis pulled his arm free.  
“Ha!” The man laughed, but cut his eyes at Artemis. “I ain’t doing anything with you, if you’re, like that.”  
“You’re not my type either, friend. I’ll help you all the same, but you both need to follow me, stay close, quiet, and stop when I stop. Leave the packs, they’ll slow you down.” Artemis checked outside the hollow for any ill signs.  
“I just bought this!” The woman complained.  
“Ma’am, did your ‘anything’ not include leaving your god damn overpriced pack on the mountain? Priorities, your bag or your life?” Artemis rolled his eyes at how slowly and reluctantly she left the bag behind. Artemis kept his gun low, and away, but his finger rested on the trigger.  
Artemis kept the path down as easy as he could. The pair made him wince with their every other step. Rocks sent clattering, branches snapped, they all sounded so loud when the mist silenced so much on his way up.  
“Hey man, man!” The man called in a hushed tone. “What the fuck is wrong with this place?”  
“We need to be quiet. You can ask questions once you’re safe.” Artemis said, but the man continued.  
“This shit isn’t right, how long has this gone on?”  
“My whole life, and my dad’s, and his dad before him. Longer than that, but this ain’t the time for a history lesson.”  
“Why not just leave?” The woman chimed in.  
“Tradition? Pride? Maybe we country folk are just a stubborn sort, and the word home means something to us. So, we learned to hunt, and survive at times like this, cause we love the times it’s not. Sides, if you stay in, like you were fuckin’ told to, the mists aren’t nothing to fret over. Now, quiet, or I might actually leave you two this time.” Artemis gave a small thanks that this shut them up. Time stretched and felt meaningless in the mists, but Artemis knew the mountain as well as he knew himself, and as the incline leveled out, and the trees became sparser he knew the town was close. A shape in the mist stopped him, he held a hand back to the pair.  
“What is it?” They asked in unison.  
“Looks like someone from town.” Artemis pulled a small compass from his pocket and handed it to the woman. “Stay low, and back, if I tell you to run, the town is to the east, just go like a bat out of hell.” Artemis stood up, gun pointed at the ground off to his side, but kept his finger on the trigger still. He walked up to the figure. A voice boomed.  
“Artie? S’at you? Hell’s bells, you’ve grown!” An older heavy set man waved to Artemis.  
“Rigby? Rigby Harrison? Never expected to see you out here on a night like this.” Artemis kept his tone light, but eyed the bearded man. The same paunch, tobacco stained teeth, and ratty flannel shirt that Ole Rigby wore.  
“Yeah, been an age since I was out and about. 3, 4 years?” Rigby scratched at his beard.  
“I’d wager 7. Seeing as that was the last time I’d seen ya. Alive, anyway.” Artemis put his other hand on the forestock of his rifle.  
“Oh? You sure on that Artie?”  
“Yeah, one of my first times out hunting during the mists. Lost a lot of us that year. Didn’t find all of you, but we found enough to know it was you. Spoke a little at your funeral, Jenny May sang, it was a beautiful service. So… Where you coming from Rigby?”  
“Same place the mist does, Artie, and let me tell you, the things we’ve seen on this side, nothing compared to what’s coming, nothing to what took me. Let me do you a favor, I’ll make it quick, save you from what was done to me.” Rigby’s arms jumped, the shine of metal from the two revolvers he carried, but Artemis had his rifle up first, a shot echoed and Rigby’s face was pulp, but his voice still played clear.  
“Best to lay down and die, Artie. This is beyond you or me, beyond all of us. They’ll do worse than just kill you.” Rigby’s body strolled calmly into the mist and disappeared. A sound resonated out of the mists, Artemis’ chest shook, sweat exploded down his face, every instinct screamed to run.  
“You two! Get back to town, I’m right behind you!” He could barely  
make out the pair as they sprinted off out of sight. Movement throughout the mist, strange footfalls, some sort of tones meant to communicate, but all stayed just out of his sight, stayed shapes in the mist.  
“Rigby! You still out there?”  
“Rethinking my offer, Artie?” Rigby called from somewhere.  
“Nah, but wanted to say that I always had a thing for your oldest daughter, never really did anything, since I’m after fun, and not to make an honest man out of myself, felt disrespectful to your memory somehow. Well, after you tried to shoot me and all, I’m less conflicted about it, so once I get back to town tonight, I think I’ll give her a call.”  
Rigby’s laughter boomed.  
“Joke while you can Artie, the others will be on their way, and you won’t have a laugh left once they’re done.”  
“Well, once they decide to show,” Artemis brought his rifle to his shoulder, took aim at one of the shapes. He pulled the trigger and called.  
“I’ll shoot them too.”


End file.
